Romancing the Bean Series
by Caffeine Cowboy
Tales from the Old Country
Coffee Cantata by Johan Sebastian Bach
“No daughter
of mine will drink coffee!” declares Schlendrian. (Stuffy in German) “But father, if I don’t have at least three
small cups a day, I’ll soon be as dried-out as an un-basted roast!”
Cleverly,
Schlendrian proposes, “Fine, then make your choice, a husband or coffee!” His willful daughter seemingly demurs to her
father's restriction but with a stage whisper tells the audience, “Any man who
wishes to win my hand must first promise to supply all of the coffee I want!”
Amused by the Parisian fad for coffee, Bach asked the
famed poet and satirist Picador to write a libretto with coffee as its
theme. The story mirrored the attitude
of the German elite toward women and the middle class. Coffee was too special
for the commoner and coffeehouses were no place for a lady!
As seen on U-tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6-PRCv7SfM
Before public
music halls existed in Germany, cafés attracted music lovers by sponsoring
performances by collegia musica (the association of private musicians).
From 1720 to1740, Bach performed for the
public and experimented with new pieces at Zimmerman’s Kaffeehaus in
Leipzig. The Coffee Cantata was
first performed there in 1734. It was a
musical and community success.
The most famous
coffee snob:
I was especially delighted when I learned of our mutual love, no,
obsession with coffee. I am certainly as well-grounded in the coffee world as
anyone. I earned the aka Caffeine Cowboy.
Beethoven
considered the making of coffee so personal an undertaking that even
though the great man was waited on hand and foot by his devoted
manservant Schindler, he wouldn’t
trust the preparation of his coffee to anyone.
He personally
performed the preparation as if it were a sacred ritual. Many, many times a day, he would count out
exactly 50 perfectly roasted coffee beans and then grind and brew one cup at
a time.
He showed no
consideration for even his most notable guest. Beethoven ignored everyone
during his coffee times. It was his
personal indulgence. He was known to
have used a vacuum pot, which dates the device to pre-1827, the year of the
maestro’s death.
The vacuum pot
is now better known by its British brand name, the Cona Pot. It consists of two glass globes, one above
the other, with an alcohol-fed wick below as its heat source. The ground coffee is placed in the upper
chamber and a measured amount of water is in the lower globe. As the water comes to a boil, it surges thru
the tubing to the upper chamber. A
vacuum is created when the flame is removed which draws the steeped brew back
to the bottom. It is a clever device,
but cleaning it is tedious.
The most
notable scientists, philosophers, musicians, and writers of the German empire
consumed copious amounts of coffee. In 1825, the Kranzler Café was founded in
Berlin. It was established by Johann
Georg Kranzler, and became a favored gathering place for the intellectuals and
the elite.
For the
middle class and lesser citizens, Zeltes (tent-type kiosks) were prominent
throughout many public places. These businesses provided boiling water and the
accessories necessary to prepare coffee.
Most patrons brought their own coffee. Used grounds were often resold to
the less fortunate.
Bliemchenkaffe (little flower coffee)
The Germans
became the source of a gentle joke concerning their coffee frugality. For those who couldn’t afford or access
coffee easily, many substitutes, fillers, and clever grinding and brewing
methods were devised.
You never knew
what might be coloring and flavoring the hot brew, but they called it coffee
and pretended it was!
This trend
began when the servants of the fortunate saved the used grounds of their
masters, but this was just a prelude to hard times when coffee availability
became an issue. Especially during post-war times the lack of availability reached every class and drew them to another
common bond.
The nation of
Germany as a whole drink more coffee per capita than any other and this ranks
them as the #1 coffee consumer in the world. In the latest world
reports, 94% of the population drinks coffee.
They drink 50% more than the Italian or the French. Germans will have coffee at any time of the
day.
There is no
coffee time as is common with many other cultures. Any time is coffee time! It is always the first thing offered to a
guest and must be shared for fear of being rude. Theirs is an emotional need to have and provide coffee that surpasses all other nationalities. To the German, coffee is served very hot to
warm the body and the soul. It is the accompaniment to companionship and
intellectual stimulation.
To understand this unmatched devotion, one
should know some German coffee history.
In 1582, a
German botanist from Augsburg, Leonhardt Rauwolf, traveled to Arabia and
reported his discovery of quischr in his chronicles. This likely makes Germans the first Europeans
to even know of coffee. It would be
several more years before the other Europeans would have evidence of its
existence.
In 1673, the
first known German coffeehouse was opened by Jan Dantz in Breman. 1677 is the year the second known café was
opened. This one was in Hanover. By the
early 1700s, there were several cafes in Leipzig. By now, the exchange of news, politics, and
culture was filtered to the entire nation by way of coffee talk.
The
tri-monthly journal Il Caffe was founded in 1764 and was quickly translated and
then distributed at coffeehouses throughout Germany. Societa’de Caffe and dozens of other publications
were obtained by way of these cafés. Their themes dealt with the spirit of
enlightenment. Coffee became the common
denominator of intellectual exchange for all classes. Because of this developed
relationship between coffee and social awareness, the Germans have never
separated the two to this day.
During the 18th
century, coffee consumption grew to such importance and volume that Fredrick II became concerned about the economic impact of coffee in
relationship with the other beverage of choice, beer. The Kaiser saw a national obsession
developing, and feared its effect on the local agriculture.
Although
coffee cannot be grown in Germany and therefore could never challenge the
growing of hops and barley, its consumption has amazingly far surpassed that of
beer.
When Government
steps in:
In order to
gain some control of coffee, and to preserve its availability to the nobles,
Fredrick the Great imposed heavy fees by way of import licenses and roasting
permits. These fees could only be issued
or even afforded by the privileged aristocracy and clergy. In order to enforce
these sanctions, official ‘coffee sniffers’ were employed. These snoops would roam the streets and
countryside in order to catch illegal coffee roasting.
Besides the
illegal roasting, ingenious methods of importing coffee were also
documented. One band of illicit traders
apparently smuggled the green coffee beans in coffins that they passed off as
containing the bodies of lepers. Such
was the extent of the emotional need for coffee, that women were said to weep
in the streets when coffee was transported past them, knowing that none of it
would reach their cups.
Decaffeinated
coffee was invented by a German, Lugwig Roselius in 1905. The Swiss took over the dominance of decalf
mostly because the Germans didn’t see the sense of taking anything away from
coffee.
Maybe the
other greatest effect on the coffee world also came from a German. In 1908, Melitta Benz invented the paper
coffee filter. To say that this innovation was significant is an
understatement. The Americans use these
filters for drip coffee to the virtual exclusion of all other methods. The Germans and most other coffee purists
prefer gold filters, French presses, vacuum pots, and espresso machines as well
as several other ingenious devices.
Paper filters
absorb and hold much of the cafeoils that provide body and many of the delicate
flavor tones. Like their disdain for decalf, the Germans cannot abide the
thought of taking anything away from the bean. They want everything they can
get out of every bean.
All of this
leads us back to Bliemchenkaffe (little flower coffee).
It was said that a German will suspend a single
coffee bean over a pot of boiling water and steep the shadow it cast. The coffee is so weak you can see the little
flowers painted inside their cups. But at least there is some coffee in the cup!
Their
reputation for drinking weak coffee developed because of two factors; the many
periods in their history when coffee was either unavailable or unaffordable,
and their emotional and spiritual need to have coffee.
Since the
times of the ancient Turks, no other nationality has shown a higher devotion to
coffee accessories. Nymphenburg and
Meissen are just a couple of highly respected companies that have produced fine
works of art that serve as coffee service and personal cups. Many of these have little flowers painted
inside!
Their devotion to personal cups exceeds even the British devotion to
tea service. You will often find dozens or even many more designs and styles of coffee cups and mugs in their homes.
They have engineered more styles of roasters, grinders, and
brewing methods than any of their European counterparts. If you have some
inherited German coffee cups, the spirits of your ancestors are in your hand.
- J.B. Blocker is a media consultant based in Collin County in North Texas. Advertise with J.B. by calling 469-334-9962.
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